California OKs high-speed rail

The California state Senate passed a budget measure Friday afternoon that sealed the deal: High-speed rail is coming to the Golden State.

The bill passed with only Democratic support in the upper chamber, 21-16, and authorizes the state to provide $2.7 billion in funds that the Department of Transportation will match with $3.3 billion, a total of $6 billion that will go to funding the initial, 130-mile high-speed segment in the Central Valley region.

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The federal money was contingent on the state’s go-ahead; now there is enough money for contracts to go out and ground to be broken. Some of that money came from states like Wisconsin and Florida, whose Republican governors rejected the federal fast train money. The project, decades in the making, could begin construction as soon as this winter.

The legislation also contains nearly $2 billion for local projects in the state’s heavily populated Bay Area and Southern California. The General Assembly passed the measure Thursday, 51-27, but the Senate showdown was always the main event. In the days preceding the vote, Capitol Hill Democrats — reportedly including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — aided state supporters in shoring up the necessary 21 votes for the bill, which was the subject of intense media speculation all week as leaders delayed the vote until moments before a month-long recess began.

Before the vote, state Senate President Darrell Steinberg (D) took to the floor to offer a last request for support.

“How many chances to do we have to inject a colossal stimulus into today’s economy?” Steinberg said, imploring his colleagues to vote yes. “This project has now transformed from high-speed rail only to an $8 billion infrastructure infusion.”

And Republicans, who all opposed the measure, tried to use procedural votes and tactics to scrap the vote. Then they criticized the state for deficit spending during difficult financial times.

“I think this is a colossal fiscal train wreck for California,” said Sen. Tony Strickland (R). “This was sold to the people of California at a very low cost compared to where it is today.”

In the end the votes were there, delivering a crucial victory to Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration and perhaps most of all California Gov. Jerry Brown (D). He has stood up for high-speed rail in the face of heated criticism not only from Capitol Hill and Sacramento Republicans, but also California Senate Democrats, some of whom pitched an alternate plan up to the last minute. The project has also been subject to a series of polls that indicate swelling voter regret over authorizing state bond money for the fast-train project.

But Brown stood strong, absorbing the blows from opponents and the public, including this week’s Field Poll that found approval of the rail money makes about 31 percent of likely voters less likely to support Brown’s tax increase package. The survey suggests some voters see spending on the rail system as frivolous given the Golden State’s high debt and 11 percent unemployment. State Sen. Joe Simitian (D) cited the poll in opposition, questioning why the Senate would “put the future of the state at risk” by trading $40 billion in new revenues for $3.3 billion from the feds.

Brown and allies DOT Secretary Ray LaHood and California High-Speed Rail Authority Chairman Dan Richard have compared the system’s tribulation with consternation over such landmark American achievements as the California university system and the Interstate Highway System. Those projects too had to start somewhere, advocates say, just like high-speed rail’s first segment in the sparsely populated Central Valley corridor. The first train could run as soon as 2018, according to authority projections.

After ballooning from $33 billion to nearly $100 billion, Richard — who became chairman in the spring — cut back the business plan to $68 billion, which includes integration into existing systems to save money and makes the system more useful from the beginning. The plan was supposed to sate critics who point out the state is far short of securing the entire $68 billion and worry California could be left with “stranded assets.”

Concerns about funding remain and opponents will continue working to grind construction of the roundly derided “train-to-nowhere” to a halt.

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is investigating the use of the system’s federal money and has indicated the committee could hold a hearing this summer. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) tacked on an amendment to the House funding bill for DOT that prevents the department from spending on Golden State’s fast trains.

And GOP state Sen. Doug LaMalfa, the system’s most vocal dissenter in the Senate, is not giving up after his campaign to spike the bill in the state legislature failed. He will push for voters to have another chance on the ballot to vote on the system. Failing that, he may soon have another opportunity to attack the project. LaMalfa appears the favorite to take a sprawling northern coastal district congressional seat in November.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 7:19 p.m. on July 6, 2012.